Sage Investment Counsel LLC Buys New Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sage Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,622,000. Visa accounts for about 2.1% of Sage Investment Counsel LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on V shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $363.33 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $333.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $305.66. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $364.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.